With New Surge, One Thousand U.S. Soldiers and $300 Million for Every One al Qaeda Fighter

By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MATTHEW COLE and BRIAN ROSS | Dec. 2, 2009

As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country.

None of this takes into account the countless billions already squandered and the cost of troops already in place. Worst of all there is no consideration of the loss of innocent civilian lives and the absolute devastation of the country’s economy and infrastructure.

_________________“I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat.”-Will Rogers

This may be a political ploy. The Obama admin acknowledged Karzai's election as being official, even though we all know Karzai is very corrupt and the election was probably about as legal as Bush's two were. I don't know if the admin had any other choice at this time, but there it is. IF this "surge" works well, whatever "well" means for that region, then Obama can say he made the right decision.... AND if he begins to pull the troops out in 2011, it will be good for him in the election of 2012. If it doesn't work...then he will be a one term president in view of all the other difficulties he's having and will have.

Until Obama decides to be a tough, hard-nosed leader and not an appeaser, I have my doubts about his being able to accomplish much more than he already has. :(

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

As President Obama neared the close of his Nobel address, he called for “the continued expansion of our moral imagination.” Yet his speech was tightly circumscribed by the policies that his oratory labored to justify.

Lofty rationales easily tell us that warfare is striving for the noble goal of peace. But the rationales scarcely intersect with actual war. The oratory sugarcoats the poisons, helping to kill hope in the name of it.

A few months ago, when I visited an Afghan office for women’s empowerment, staffers took me to a pilot project in one of Kabul’s poorest neighborhoods. There, women were learning small-scale business skills while also gaining personal strength and mutual support.

Two-dozen women, who ranged in age from early 20s to late 50s, talked with enthusiasm about the workshops. They were desperate to change their lives. When it was time to leave, I had a question: What should I tell people in the United States, if they ask what Afghan women want most of all?

After several women spoke, the translator summed up. “They all said that the first priority is peace.”

In Afghanistan, after 30 years under the murderous twin shadows of poverty and war, the only lifeline is peace.

From President Obama, we hear that peace is the ultimate goal. But “peace” is a fixture on a strategic horizon that keeps moving as the military keeps marching.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

My most favorite talkshow host, Ray Taliaferro, blasted Obama on his Nobel speech. I certainly had problems with the speech, but Ray took the disdain to another level. What got Ray was the last paragraph:

Quote:

Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that - for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.

Ray talked about what would amount to human futility (my words) in fighting against something that "will always be with us". He talked about how false that logic is and how some forms of oppression have been chipped away by constant pressure by the people, like the great Reverend King, and positive laws. These people prove that oppression can be beaten down, little by little, so that someday it will not be with us.

It is ironic that Obama invoked King in his Nobel speech. King was against the Vietnam war, and most likely would have been against the Afghanistan build-up. And King probably would have taken issue with Obama's quoting of him in the speech.

Quote:

"I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him."

Especially, if is used in the pretext to going to battle in Afghanistan.

Top Taliban commander captured in secret raid. The Taliban's top military commander has been captured in Pakistan in a joint operation by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence forces, The New York Times reported.

AP reports:

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the No. 2 behind Taliban founder and Osama bin Laden associate Mullah Muhammad Omar, has been in Pakistan's custody for several days...

Baradar was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a raid by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, with CIA operatives accompanying the Pakistanis, the Times reported. Pakistan has been leading the interrogation of Baradar, but Americans were also involved, it said.

Baradar heads the Taliban's military council and was elevated in the body after the 2006 death of military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani. Baradar is known to coordinate the movement's military operations throughout the south and southwest of Afghanistan. His area of direct responsibility stretches over Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

If confirmed, Baradar's arrest would be a major setback for the Taliban.

He may also have information on the whereabouts of Omar and bin Laden.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman